It has been a great past few months in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (FFBE) on the Global side. The Fan Festa for the game just concluded a few weeks ago in Los Angeles, allowing those who attended to gather together in the name of their favorite mobile game. The game also saw some Global Exclusive units for the holidays, some FFBE originals, and collaborations from other Square Enix games. Gumi is set to close out the year in style with the Kingdom Hearts banner letting players pull for the game’s hero, Sora, and the Kingdom Hearts version of Cloud. So, what is in store for 2019? Luckily, the Japanese version of the game gives Global users a clue.
Still not sure who to use your Fan Festa Select Summon ticket on? Here are some tips to help you decide.
FFBE Units Coming to Global in 2019
FFBE Originals
Folka
Healers and White Mages don’t come around often as 5* base units. It is mostly because they are relatively future-proof. Ayaka was released way back in October of 2017 and most people still use her as their main healer. Her shelf-life was increased through ability awakenings and then her 7* awakening. Those that don’t use Ayaka, are probably going with Lotus Mage Fina. She was released later, so hasn’t gotten ability awakening yet, though she just got her 7* awakening recently.
Folka is set to blow those two away. For one, her passives give her massive stats and she is immune to all status ailments. From there, she has all of the necessary white magic abilities a healer needs, including Curaja and Full Life. Where she truly rises above the others however is her protections against debuffs and her damage mitigation moves. She is able to dual cast AOE white magic that removes specific debuffs that baddies put on the party, giving her utility beyond just keeping the party alive.
Outside of white magic, Folka also has specific Water Maiden moves. These include water resistance and MP recovery for the party with Deep Circle, status and stat break resistance with Water of Sanity, and either physical or magic damage mitigation with Serpent Guard and Cerulean Shell. Most of these moves simultaneously restore HP as well. Of course, they can also be Dual Casted with Water Maiden’s Prayer.
Expect Folka to get to Global sometimes in January
Akstar
First it was Orlandeau. More recently it was Hyoh. Every once in a while, a unit comes around that redefines the meta. The next one to do so will be Akstar. While Orlandeau once dominated player’s friend lists, he has fallen off of the map for the most part. Now, many players companion lists are populated by Hyoh. In fact, they might not even feel the need to switch over to Akstar.
Orlandeau was the first of the Divine Ruination (DR) chaining family. However, for months he really only had himself to partner with. This meant players either had to have pulled two copies of him, or just used a friend’s to create those powerful chains with. His family slowly grew, and now he has all kinds of partners. One of which is Hyoh. Nowadays it is easy to find a unit to chain with the DR family, but a lot of the modifiers aren’t as good as more up-to-date chainers.
Akstar benefits from having abilities that put him into multiple chaining families, including more up-to-date ones than just the DR family. Sure, if necessary, he does have abilities that allow him to chain with Orlandeau and his friends, but he is also part of the Absolute Tranquility (AT) and Aureole Ray (AR) families. The cool thing about his abilities is that they make him sustainable. One move, in particular, restores his HP and MP while chaining with a partner. Throw in some monster stats and Akstar is a unit that everyone will want on their main team for a long time.
Akstar is still a ways away, so players shouldn’t fret that their Hyohs will become useless quite yet. He probably arrives around April or May.
Global Exclusive: Chinese New Year
Global Exclusive events are basically impossible to predict because there is nothing to go off of from the Japanese side of the game. The only thing that is assured is reruns of previous year’s holiday events. Two of the bigger ones are towards the end of the year, Halloween and Christmas, but there is one that is coming up very soon: Chinese New Year. This is sure to bring a couple new units, but also 7* awakenings to the old classics.
Chow, Ang, and Yun are the old units, and many players are hoping they will be able to dust them off and use them again. A few of the kits will be a bit tricky, but Chow will be tough to screw up. As a magic tank, Chow already has all of the abilities he needs to be successful. He has a magic cover, a reraise, and even some white magic. His downfall now is simply being limited to 6* max, so his stats fall way behind newer magic tanks. Simple passives as he levels up will put him back on par with the meta of his class, and he also is likely to get some nice cooldown moves.
Yun is the oldest of all of the Chinese New Year units, so he will need some serious overhauling. For one, he needs some chaining families. Hopefully, he at least becomes part of the AT family, if not others in addition. More evasion would be welcomed as well since he was one of the first units to have some innately. Then, Ang will probably be the biggest wild card of the bunch. At his release last year he was extremely overpowered. He had a ton of innate killer traits, and as a bow user, many of them come with added bird killers as well. However, most used him as a Fixed Dice finisher. Combined with his mods, he was the best finisher for a while.
However, on the Japanese end, Fixed Dice was recently nerfed, meaning if Gumi wants to give Ang some long-term life, they will need to find a way to make him more useful with bows, especially considering his Trust Master Reward (TMR) is one. It will be interesting to see what they do.
Collaboration: Xenogears
Probably the most longed for collaboration that has happened in the Japanese version that Global players are waiting on is Xenogears. The game is a cult classic that was released over 20 years ago. Originally, it was proposed to be Final Fantasy VII, though instead, it got its own title. In Japan’s FFBE, the Xenogears banner came in two waves.
The first wave saw Fei, Elly, and Bart as the 5-7* units. Fei is more known for his TMR, which is a materia that grants a 20% attack and defense boost, and then an additional 30% attack if equipped with clothes. It also gives MP refresh. Bart is an interesting unit that acts as a provoker, debuffer, and also chains with the Kingsglaive family. Elly is the biggest treasure of the banner, acting mostly as a magic finisher. She can cover a few different elements, including earth, wind, fire and water. Her best move powers up with each use, so it can deal some major damage.
The second wave of Xenogears brings Citan who is a chainer and finisher. He can pair nicely with the AT family using water elemental abilities. He has a few options with his finishing moves, including earth, wind or nonelemental. Maria is the other 5-7* unit. She is solid, but not quite as good as Citan. Her strength is to act as a Limit Burst (LB) finisher.
One of the great features of the Xenogears banner that Global players hope will make it here is the ticket system that let the player chose one of the banner 5* units after five 10+1 pulls on the banner. This made sure that players got the limited time unit they really wanted before it was gone. Xenogears banner part one should be coming sometime in February.
Final Fantasy Crossovers
Final Fantasy X
The Final Fantasy VII banner with Tifa and Vincent will be the first crossover of the year, as confirmed at Fan Festa. However, Final Fantasy X will be the first very sought-after unit. The event will take players to the Zanarkand Ruins, and bring Auron and Jecht as the 5* base units. Both of them are very good.
Auron will be similar to what Loren is now. He can break enemy stats while also dealing great damage. Auron can dual cast his single target breaks or his damage dealing moves. And, as if the AT chain family hasn’t been mentioned enough, yeah, he can chain with them too.
Jecht is a monster damage dealer whose only limitation is that he can only chain with himself. Still, he does enough damage to warrant a spot on many team for a while. Auron and Jecht should arrive within the next few months.
Final Fantasy IV
Fans had long been clamoring for powered-up versions of the villains from the main series. While Exdeath had his moments early in the game’s life, since most of the antagonists of the series were released immediately at launch, to say they are outdated is an understatement.
Sephiroth’s popularity earned him a later release as a very powerful unit. Kuja and Exdeath at least were able to get 6* awakenings. Final Fantasy II’s villain, aptly named Emperor even got a 7* awakening. Golbez, of Final Fantasy IV, somehow ended up as the worst of them all.
Golbez maxes out at level 80. Even his minions, the Four Archfiends are all more useful than him. Well, that is until he gets his upgraded version later. When he does, Golbez will become the most powerful mage in the game for a while. Golbez can chain certain abilities with the powerful Chaos Wave family. He also gets Quadcast activated by his cooldown move. The Man in Black should arrive sometime around April or May.
Last Word on FFBE Units to Look Forward to in 2019
The benefit of a game that is about nine months behind its Japanese counterpart is that players are able to look ahead and plan out the use of resources to give themselves a better chance at some of the soon-to-be-sought-after characters. FFBE originals like Folka and Akstar will become the meta at their roles for a long time once they are released. The Xenogears collaboration will provide both nostalgia and OP units for those who pull them. Then, the Final Fantasy purists will be able to get both some iconic heroes and villains from the series.
Of course, there will also be some other surprise Global Exclusive characters. When will we see the currently Fan Festa exclusive Aurora Fryevia? What never before seen units will Global get, and what is still to come in the Japanese version this year?
Click here for the next installment of “What to Look Forward to in 2019,” detailing trials and quality of life improvements. Thanks for reading!
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